21st Century
The 21st Century was the period between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2099, of the Common Era in accordance with the Gregorian calendar; and the first century of the 3rd millennium. The 100 year period was marked by political strife, nuclear war and revolution. 2000 - 2010 2000: End of Israeli occupation of Lebanon. Second Intifada begins. George W. Bush is elected President of the United States. Vincente Fox becomes the first opposition President of Mexico. Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia. British Army launch Operation Palliser which effectively ends the Sierra Leone Civil War. International Space Station begins operations. First Inter-Korean Summit. al-Qaeda suicide bombs the USS Cole. 2001: 9/11 attacks destroy the World Trade Center in New York, damage the Pentagon in Washington, DC. War on Terror declared. Afghan War begins. Wikipedia founded. President Joseph Estrada of the Philippines impeached. 2002: 2002 Bali bombings. Chechen rebels seize theatre in Moscow. America demands Iraq allow unfettered access to weapons inspectors. Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established. Algerian Civil War ends. Rose Revolution in Georgia. Independence of East Timor. 2003: Iraq War begins, triggering worldwide protests. War in Darfur begins. The Human Genome Project is completed. Second Congo War ends with more than 5 million dead. Second Liberian Civil War ends. Space Shuttle Columbia is destroyed on re-entry. 2004: Enlargement of NATO and the European Union incorporates most of former Eastern Bloc. Madrid train bombings. Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Beslan school hostage crisis. Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in Indian Ocean, leading to the deaths of 230,000. 2005: IRA end military campaign in Northern Ireland. 7/7 attacks on London Underground. Angela Merkel becomes Germany's first woman Chancellor; Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. Second Intifada ends. Israel withdraws from Gaza; Cedar Revolution in Lebanon. Second Sudanese Civil War ends. Hurricane Katrina kills nearly 2000 people in the Gulf of Mexico. 80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir. The Kyoto Protocol comes into effect. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran. Benedict XVI becomes Pope. 2006: Independence of Montenegro. Second invasion of Lebanon. Mumbai bombings. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes President of Liberia, and thus Africa's first elected female head of state. Saddam Hussein is executed in Iraq. The Baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, becomes functionally extinct. 2007: Anti-government protests in Myanmar crushed by ruling junta. Spike in food prices and subprime crisis help trigger the Great Recession. Assassination of Benazir Bhutto 2008: End of Monarchy in Nepal. Barack Obama is elected President of the United States. Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar. Gaza War begins. 2008 South Ossetia war. Kosovo declares independence, to mixed reaction. Battle of Basra - Iraqi forces crack down on Muqtada al Sadr's Mahdi forces in Basra and Sadr City. Ireland rejects treaty of Lisbon 2009: Gaza War ends; Gaza blockade continues. Election protests begin in Iran. Second Chechen War ends. Death of Michael Jackson. Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest skyscraper, is completed. Great Recession officially ends. Formation of BRICS economic bloc. Treaty of Lisbon ratified 2010: David Cameron becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 2010 Moscow Metro bombings. 2010 Kyrgyzstani revolution. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000. Flooding in Pakistan kills nearly 2,000 and leaves roughly a million homeless. Threat of Greece defaulting on its debts triggers the European sovereign debt crisis and Ireland's bankruptcy. The largest oil spill in US history occurs in the Gulf of Mexico. Tensions rise between North and South Korea, culimating in the shelling of the island of Yeonpyeong. Aung San Suu Kyi released from house arrest. The website Wikileaks releases thousands of classified US documents. Arab Spring triggered by self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia. 2011 - 2021 2011: Independence of South Sudan. Arab Spring: revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya follow, as well as uprisings in Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, and protests in several other Arab countries. Occupy movement inspires worldwide protests, bringing economic inequality under capitalism to attention. News International phone hacking scandal. A 9.0 earthquake near Tohoku, Japan triggers a tsunami that results in 16,000 deaths and the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Second Ivorian Civil War ends with the arrest of former president Laurent Gbagbo. Floods in Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines kill roughly 2500 people. Deaths of Muammar Gaddafi, Osama bin Laden and Kim Jong Il. Iraq War ends. The New Democratic Party of Canada gains official opposition status in the Canadian Parliament for the first time. World population reaches 7 billion.